“Perhaps it’s a lack of communication.”
He winced at her wry tone. “The round is yours, Countess.”
A tired giggle escaped her.
Quiet filled the chamber. He looked up at the canopy though it was difficult to see anything with his head resting on his bent elbow. The warmth from Gabriella’s buttocks seared his hip. An image of her returning from that darkened hall at the Theatre Royale popped in his mind, along with the quick rise of anger. “Are you sleeping?” he asked her.
“I was on the cusp,” she croaked out. “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer your own chamber, my lord?”
“Is it so difficult to refer to me as James when I’ve taken you from here to Sunday, my lady?” He didn’t bother holding back his agitation.
She slowly rolled to her back. “I wasn't trying to seduce you, sir.”
He barked out a laugh then dropped a kiss on her naked shoulder. “A far cry from the night we met, eh, my dear?”
“You mean the night you melted away in the dark at my debut?” Again, with the primness, he heard her amusement.
He shook his head. “My thinking was more in line of the night you trapped me into marrying you.”
She was quiet for a time. “Is that what you truly believe?” She spoke softly, but he was cognizant of a sudden tenseness.
Lady Macbeth let out a low growl of dissatisfaction at being disturbed.
“’Tis what I initially thought when I heard your conversation with your sister. But now I think I missed something.”
“What I recall,” she said, “was my second set down of the evening. First, by Rose, on dancing with a man I hadn’t yet been introduced to, then by Claire, regarding my incompetence for having turned the Marquis of Shufflebottom away. No doubt there would have been a third, had Antonia been allowed to attend.”
This was news to James. True, the dandy had always seemed to be sniffing around Gabriella, but she belonged to him now. “You were forced to turn Shufflebottom away?” It was relief coursing through him.
“Screaming in the middle of a ballroom is not considered good etiquette, sir. I went to the terrace as a matter of social survival. It wasn’t me who spoke to you. I had no notion you were even there.”
That was true. He’d been the one to step from the shadows.
“It wasn’t I who kissed you.”
Also, true. “But you didn’t pull away from me either. And then your brother…”
“I didn’t even know Sebastian was in attendance. He rarely shows himself unless absolutely required by Liverpool or Rebecca, and Rebecca hates those events more than Sebastian—” She narrowed her eyes on him. “Something of which you seem to be of like mind.”
He quickly ignored that statement. “It was Shufflebottom your sister wanted you to entrap?”
She gave a disdainful sniff. “He is a marquis. You are only an earl. I hate to break the news to you, Huntley, but you entrapped yourself.” Her voice held the hint of a smile.
A laugh grunted out of him. “Once again, I find myself asking for your forgiveness.”
She flopped down and rolled to her side with her backside to him. She had him over a barrel.
Groaning, he conformed his body to hers and found himself having to wrestle for position with a tiny growl and nip on his finger. “Enough, Lady Macbeth,” he growled back, and was rewarded with the flick of her tongue, while his wife’s body shook—with helpless laughter.
Ten
Dearest Gabby. ’Tis just as I’ve feared, we’ve hit a hinderance to our grand plan. Sadly, we’ve but one option left to us. Yrs. R
Gabby jerked, abruptly awake, at a tickle on her nose. She blinked in the low light as another flick of Lady Macbeth’s tongue lashed at her face, and—ugh—doggy breath. “What time is it, you mongrel?”
“I’m not a mongrel, madam.” The husky growl quickly reminded her she and Macbeth had company.
Huntley’s arm lay heavily across her hip. He put off so much heat, no fire in the hearth was required. She took a moment to savor the unexpected bliss she was experiencing. Why didn’t the dowagers see fit to mention the marriage bed could be so… so exhilarating? Well, that question was a misnomer—there’d be no virgins left. The night before had been all she’d hoped from her marriage at the beginning, and even now, gave her a spark of hope for a brighter future—
